J. Kelly (Rockbridge County Public Schools & NRAO), K.
O'Neil (NRAO) When using the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank
Telescope (GBT) for pulsar observations, observers need to
be able to insure the data reaching the observer is of the
highest quality possible. To do this, telescope users need
to be able to monitor, in real time, the raw signal
intensity of data as it flows in from the GBT. In the summer
of 2004 at NRAO-Greenbank, my Research Experience For
Teachers project was spent developing this utility. For
portability and compatibility, the computer language python
was used to build the visualization utility. The major
hurdle in developing the python modules was in reading and
manipulating the tremendous quantity of unprocessed data
acquired during an observation. (The spigot data rate is set
to be 25 Mb/s.) The data stream is intercepted by a "spigot"
card, buffered and then stored on a hard drive as a series
of binary files. The python modules attempt to read, parse
and organize these binary files to ultimately produce a
simple intensity versus time plot of the data stream. The
modules developed run as a loop to update the plot several
times per minute. Integrating the knowledge and experience
of this research in the classroom involves an introductory
unit on radio astronomy and astrophysics. Additionally,
students will have the opportunity to analyze data collected
from the Crab Nebula Pulsar and experience backend processes
such as data folding. These activities will be described.
This work was funded by the National Science Foundation RET
program.